While I was preparing some personal background information for a potential client, I was reviewing all the programming languages that I have had experience with. I list languages that I'm most experienced with on my resume. However, it occured to me that if I was to list all the languages that I've worked with, then the client would become overwhelmed with the resume and just write me off as either a total bit head or looney toons. But as I reflected on all these different environments I realized how much fun I've had being involved with the software development industry, and that a lot of that fun has to do with the learning process. I think this is what makes a good programmer. Not just the ability to write code, or come up with a very creative application, but the ability to learn. Lets admit it! If a programmer doesn't have good learning skills, then the programmer is going to have a very short career.
As an exercise, I'm going to list out my Programming Language Migration Path. I would be interested to hear from other programmers what their PLMP is as well. Here goes:
* Commodore Vic-20 Basic
* Commodore Vic-20 6502 Assembler
* Commodore 64 6510 Assembler (Lots of all nighters with this one!)
* IBM BASIC
* IBM Assembler (My hate relationship with segment addressing.)
* dBASE II (Wow! Structured programming.)
* GWBasic
* Turbo Pascal (Thank you Mr. Kahn! Best $49 I ever spent!)
* Turbo C
* dBASE III+ (Cool, my dBASE II report generator now only takes 2 hours to run instead of 7.)
* Clipper/Foxbase
* dBASE IV
* dBASE SQL
* Microsoft C (First under DOS, then under Windows 3.1)
* SuperBase (First under Amiga DOS, then for MS Windows)
* SQL Windows (Whatever happened to this? Gupta?)
* Visual Basic 2.0
* Delphi
* Visual Basic 3.0
* Access Basic / Word Basic (Microsoft)
* Newton Script (My first "elegant" language)
* Visual Basic 4.0 & 5.0
* HTML
* FormLogic (for Apple Newton)
* Codewarrior C for Palm OS
* Visual Basic 6.0
* NS BASIC for Palm OS & Windows CE
* FileMaker 5
* Satellite Forms
* Visual C++
* REAL Basic for Mac 9.x & OSX
* Java
* Codewarrior C++ for Palm OS
* Appforge for Palm OS & Pocket PC
* C#
* FileMaker Pro 7.0
Whew! Not only is this a good exercise to reflect on all the languages that I've worked with, but it is a good example of how the languages and the technology has progressed during the past 25 years. I'm sure that I'll be adding much more to this PLMP in the near future as well. And as with most programmers I know, there is so much more that I would like to learn but just don't have the time.
Another good exercise is to bring this up as a topic of discussion with a group of programmers after a nice long day at any technical trade show. For example, quite some time ago, after a long day at the OS/2 Developers Conference in Seattle (Yea, dating myself here.), I brought up the topic of 6502 Assembly Language programming. This was during dinner at around 7pm. The resulting conversation migrated to the hotel lobby where it continued until around 2am in the morning. (Ah, the good ol' days.) ;)
(If you're a developer, I'd be interested in seeing your own personal Programming Language Migration Path. Shoot me an email to timdottrimbleatgmaildotcom.)
Timothy Trimble, The ART of Software Development
Timothy Trimble is a award winning, freelance writer, and software developer. He has written a book for Microsoft Press and over 35 articles for significant computer industry trade magazines. He is the Blog publisher of The ART of Software Development which can be found via his web site at http://www.timothytrimble.info
Bradley bmw rental chicago .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareMicrosoft Retail Management (RMS) and Microsoft Great Plains are retail... Read More
Many Webmasters have never bothered to view their website's server... Read More
Although we don't know whether Microsoft ever envisioned such a... Read More
Ad-Aware and Spybot are probably the two most well known... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is now standard mid-market ERP application, serving... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is present several years on the... Read More
You turn on your computer, and it doesn't look quite... Read More
MS CRM is very close to document workflow automation, including... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains could be tuned and setup to fit... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very popular ERP/MRP applications... Read More
Writing software manuals is boring, isn't it? We often think:... Read More
How many steps does it take you to locate and... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains version 8.5, 8.0, 7.5, Great... Read More
I provide, here clear explanations and a count of function... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More
Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt to... Read More
Spyware, what it is and what it does. Basically, spyware... Read More
Whether you are a small consultancy firm, a medium sized... Read More
Microsoft CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino seem to be... Read More
Now is the time to look at an alternative to... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains might be considered as ERP... Read More
Our opinion is based on our Microsoft Business Solutions Great... Read More
This article is for advanced Microsoft CRM SDK C# developers.... Read More
It is a well known fact that Java as a... Read More
Are you ready? SQL Server 2005, the next-generation data management... Read More
prom limo McHenry ..Microsoft Business Solutions products: Great Plains, MS CRM, Navision, Axapta,... Read More
Bar charts, bar graphs, and any other chart or graph... Read More
Disclaimer: All the thoughts expressed are my views only! Your... Read More
Introduction To ISDN, Part III: Configuring PPP PAP AuthenticationNow we... Read More
All your software is stored on a hard-drive. But how... Read More
Most people don't use Photoshop to its fullest capabilities. Here... Read More
Security flaws have long plagued Internet Explorer (IE), the market-dominating... Read More
A LOT OF UNWANTED FILES.When you uninstall an item of... Read More
Hi, Guys,I believe a lot of programmers are trying to... Read More
Microsoft CRM is winning market share step-by-step from such the... Read More
There is many things more frustrating than surfing a website... Read More
Let's say that you have a software project that's under... Read More
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Hawaii (HMSA) found itself... Read More
If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for... Read More
Buying accounting software is a major investment. It's an important... Read More
When reading an article where some term is used often,... Read More
In our opinion, traditional approach when you select ERP/MRP system... Read More
Beginning with Domino version R4 it has integration with the... Read More
In the new era of internet marketing the problem of... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains serves multiple industries in the... Read More
We would like to give you several situations, when you... Read More
Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can... Read More
ERP is the acronym of Enterprise Resource Planning. Multi-module ERP... Read More
For a windows user like me, just can watch with... Read More
What is 'adware'?Adware is basically software or scripts that are... Read More
Software |